FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 19, 2009

Contact: K.E. Schwab  

724.738.2199

 karl.schwab@sru.edu

Holocaust survivor describes life in Auschwitz 

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Rabbi Baruch Goldstein, who was 16 in 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland and for the next three years watched  his family scattered throughout the Nazi empire and killed, will deliver a lecture titled “In the Midst of Good and Evil: A Survivor’s Account of Auschwitz” when he visits Slippery Rock University March 31.

            Goldstein’s visit is part of SRU’s Annual Holocaust Remembrance Program. The free public lecture is at 4 p.m. in Miller Auditorium. The annual program is dedicated to the memory of the late Sylvan Cohen, a member of the SRU political science faculty. 

            “Each year we assemble to remember the horrors of the Holocaust,” said Richard Martin, professor of political science and program organizer. “We have indeed been fortunate to have brought to campus a number of speakers who were personally affected by the events of the Holocaust and who are willing to share their memories and the history. This year, with Rabbi Goldstein, we have a man who lived through the event and is able to detail how events of the day affected – and still affect – his life. The story is uplifting by someone who has literally survived Hell and regained himself.”

            Goldstein will discuss how he watched his younger brother led away to the gas chamber at Auschwitz where he had been assigned as a slave laborer. He will also tell of the death march that followed the liquidation of the camp. He remembers that he was lucky enough at the time to have a number of others from his hometown of Mlawa around him to help him avoid death.

            Goldstein, author of “For Decades I Was Silent: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey Back to Faith,” said he had planed to go to Palestine to live with friends following his release, but was contacted by an aunt and uncle in the United States brought him to America. He said he had serious doubts about his religion and God’s role in the Holocaust following his release, but with family support began pursuit of a religious education leading to his work as a rabbi.

            He served as rabbi at a number of synagogues in Massachusetts before retiring to Florida.

            His book will be available for purchase in Miller.

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